Mercenaries 2: World in Flames AU Review

Killing people for fun and profit.

Now this is our kind of game. Within three minutes of starting Mercenaries 2 you're given a grenade launcher, within five you're barreling through the jungle in a jeep. Within ten you're in a goddamn tank and ploughing down a hillside through a shanty town (shades of Police Story). And then within hours you're calling in airstrikes to level entire blocks. This is -- unapologetically -- a game that's all about blowing stuff up and killing people, and you know what? Sometimes that's exactly what we want: high concept popcorn entertainment.

Sure, if you take a step back and examine the world that Pandemic has created, it's a pretty reprehensible moral vacuum. You character(s) are only in it for the almighty dollar (or al-ighty ollar as the case may be), taking on missions for opposing factions and killing anyone who stands in their way, while the overall through narrative (for Mattias at least) is little more than a shallow quest for revenge. What's that? You got betrayed by a client? Big surprise, you're a mercenary. It's set against a backdrop of political turmoil in Venezuela, with Universal Petroleum controlling the country's rich oilfields and in turn their lucrative profits, leaving the rest of the country (aside from corrupt politicians) to rot. Unsurprisingly, there's a coup, with the new leader claiming he'll take power back from the oil company and distribute wealth more evenly among the people. Of course, several other factions have their own plans. Yadda yadda yadda, you get the idea.

It all boils down to a melting pot of violence and destruction, where you can pretty much do what you want. And that's the point. This isn't a realistic depiction of the chaos and corruption of a developing nation, it's an open-world shooter! So our advice is -- step back from the story and just have fun.

What did Venezuela ever do to you dude?

So what will you be doing in sunny Venezuela? Well, pretty early on you establish your PMC (that's Projectile Mucus Conglomerate for those not in the know) on a palatial estate you take by force. As your base of operations, you start out with only one other member: Fiona, an Australian girl who gives you tips, advice and info about the world. Before long, however, you expand to include Ewan, an Irish helicopter pilot, Eva, a sassy female mechanic and Misha, a drunk Russian fighter pilot. A drunk Russian? C'mon guys, you can do better than that.

These partners are useful in a number of ways -- if you find stacks of cash, tanks of oil or stockpile items in the world you can tag them and get Ewan to come and pick them up. He can also pick you up from anywhere in the world and take you to any unlocked helicopter pad. Eva can build custom vehicles for you (there are 100 spare parts kits to find in the world), while Misha expands your capabilities for bombing runs in the field. Each of the support characters also offers up challenges that you can bet on. Successfully beating challenges unlock stockpile items you can get air-dropped into the world.

Indeed, it's the stockpile system that is one of the highlights of Mercenaries 2. Find yourself in need of specialised transport or heavy duty weaponry? Just select the appropriate item in the game's menu, toss a flare onto the ground and Ewan will drop in whatever you requested. The more missions and challenges you beat the more you'll unlock, and stockpile items are divided into a number of broad categories. The Airstrikes category unlocks bombing runs, cluster bombs, tank busters and other forms of death-from-above attacks. The Vehicles category is broken up into unarmed, light military, heavy military, helicopters and boats, so you'll have access to everything from a monster truck through to tanks and luxury cars with mounted grenade launchers on the roof. The Supplies category includes a number of kits; the People's Liberation Army of Venezuela Supply Drop kit, for instance, includes a basic assault rifle, grenades, ammo and a med kit. You can also get C4 drops, sniper kits, grenade launchers and plenty more.

"Mierda! Esto es realmente peligroso!" as they would say in Venezuela.

This isn't a free-for-all, however. Once you've unlocked a stockpile item, you still need stock of the item to use it. You can find stock out in the field or purchase them from a variety of shops in the game. And then to actually use it you need to have enough oil. Dropping in a supply kit, for instance, may only use up 60 units of oil, while an airstrike could cost a few hundred. Oil doesn't actually cost you money, however. There are tanks of the stuff scattered about the place which Ewan can pick up, and blowing stuff up will also often yield smaller amounts of oil. So what's the point? Oil is really there to stop you from being able to drop in stuff constantly. You simply can't unleash ten airstrikes in a row.

It's also a clever way of ramping up your capabilities as the game progresses. At the start you've got quite limited oil storage capacity, but as you complete missions for the various outposts you can expand the amount of oil you can hold at any one time. Overall, it's a good system for keeping the action flowing and the explosions large, without giving the player game-destroying power.

Of course, all the options are well and good, but for the majority of the missions you really won't need to use them. Most outposts can be captured by running in with a decent machine gun, an RPG and a few grenades -- all of which can be found in the field. Similarly, you can simply steal vehicles (including choppers using your grapple) to get from point to point, as opposed to dropping them in.

The missions you'll come across fall under either contracts and bounties -- the former must be unlocked while the latter are available to do at any time. One of the main forms of contracts is taking control of outposts for factions -- get to the spot on the map, kill any resistance and it's yours. From there other contract missions open up (typically another outpost mission) and you'll unlock new stockpile items. There are more varied contract missions, of course, such as escorting VIPs, defending structures, destroying bridges, duking it out on water and missions related to the storyline.